from Carter that CeCe has been manipulating her all along while Lily calls Dan to tell him to fight for Serena. As Chuck offers to dance with Blair, she assumes that Chuck has been planning to ruin her and leaves him. Serena soon confronts her grandmother, ambiguously telling her granddaughter that her illness might be true but the two are surprised to see Dan, waiting for Serena and beginning their first dance. In pursuit of Blair, Chuck finds her kissing Nate on the hotel stairway, breaking his heart. Jenny arrives at the gallery but finds it empty, with Alison giving her advice to reflect on the person she's becoming. As the night closes, Rufus calls Lily saying that he now knows why she left him, further stating that he wished that he had never let her do so. The ending montage shows Blair and Nate kissing romantically on a bed, and then having sex, Dan carrying Serena out of the hotel lobby, Lily looking on at Dan and Serena, CeCe taking pills (confirming that her illness is genuine), and Chuck leaving Manhattan. Production This episode marks the first appearance of Caroline Lagerfelt as CeCe Rhodes. Sebastian Stan reprises his role as Carter Baizen after his first appearance in the fourth episode of the first season, "Bad News Blair". Fashion and music When asked to design and produce a dress for the Cotillion episode of Gossip Girl, costume designer Eric Daman told New York Magazine, Eric Daman considers Blair's silver brocade gown as one of his eleven favorite looks from the series during a September interview for New York Magazine, calling it "very beautiful and retro." The Pierces performed live "Secret" and "Three Wishes" from their third album Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge, during the Debutante Ball. The song "Secret" also appears in Pretty Little Liars, as the theme song. Reception "Hi, Society" garnered 2.44 million viewers and positive reviews from critics. Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club praised the writer's direction of the episode, stating "Gossip Girl needs evil like a flower needs the rain." and positively compared "Hi Society" to the previous episode, "Blair Waldorf Must Pie!". "[...] last week’s hideous Thanksgiving episode was an anomaly mostly because of the holiday: Thanksgiving is supposed to be about family and togetherness, after all, so it was the antithesis of the petty manipulation and dysfunction that makes this show purr.